Local authors discuss writing process

Three Hot Springs Village authors spoke to a group at the Good Samaritan Society campus last week about the writing process and influences on their work.

Charles Heaton “Chuck” Allen, an “Air Force brat,” became a history teacher and coach, and many of his published works focus on subjects he either researched as part of his teaching duties or personally experienced.

His varied background has provided lots of material, and Allen said that his 19 published books are of no particular genre – that his writing is “all over the place.”

He talked about his sources of inspiration – mainly his students – and described one of his favorite characters. Allen said that his writing is something that can’t be forced – “it either comes or it doesn’t.”

Arkansas native Elizabeth Foster started writing a novel in 1968, when her husband was stationed in Vietnam but, when her husband returned and they relocated, she got sidetracked, and didn’t revisit the novel until the late 1990s.

Asked about research methods, Foster said, “My book did not require much research, because I lived during the time periods I wrote about,” but there were certain aspects of the period that she had to research extensively.

She also saved newspaper clippings about certain subjects, which she drew from when the time came to write about them. She, too, has a favorite character, and said that the only criticism she had received about the book was that the character was “too perfect.”

Jeff Smith, who has worked for the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record for 14 years, said “writing is in my blood.”

He started writing while in the 5th grade, carrying a spiral notebook around with him and constantly adding to it.

He published his first novel, “Within the Gates” (set in Hot Springs Village) in 2011.

Once he got started, he hasn’t stopped – his 10th novel is coming out soon, the next one is heading to the publisher, and he has ideas for several more.

Smith likes to use actual locations, and he spends a lot of time traveling and surfing the Internet for information.

He has several characters that appear in multiple novels – a U.S. marshal, an investigative reporter, and a private investigator.

Referring to the writing process, Smith said that it has been a learning process – that when he has ideas, he just starts writing, but that he now uses a journal to develop characters and plot outlines.